Dud
“Dad! Huey found something in the backyard. Come take a look! DAD!”
Lewis buried his aching head under the linen pillowcase. Jack always yelled on Saturday mornings, all the energy school had kept in check coming back to haunt the weekends in full force. After driving over 2000 miles the week before, walking a hundred feet to the spot where his only son was jumping around with an equally frantic Golden Retriever shouldn’t be much of a hassle, except it was. Still, his screams would only escalate unless he did something.
He got up, glancing at the bed groove where Kathryn should have been sleeping, too. “Groceries, right,” he mumbled, half-open lips and half-open eyes working in unison to bring him back to reality. He descended the stairs, took a hard turn into the kitchen where the smell of blueberry pancakes was still in the air and exited into the cold November morning to look at a freshly dug hole.
What was it this time? The plastic bone from last Christmas? The pair of blue socks he had never been allowed to wear? No, sadly nothing so mundane. It was…
… a bomb.
There was no doubt about it. The grey and red logo on the dormant projectile was a stark reminder of a 20-year-old almost tragedy.
They called themselves New Amazonian Movement, NAM for short, even though no one used the acronym not even for propaganda, a radical group that supported Female Supremacy as the only way of life and was willing to do whatever it took to show it. No one took them seriously until they detonated the first artificial pheromones explosives in the U.S. capital. Fifteen thousand men were enslaved that day as an equal number of women awakened to dreams of dominance they never had before. The group’s ambitions were thwarted two days after the blast, but not before a dozen more devices exploded in other major cities. How an unaccounted bomb had found its way to Kennebunkport, Maine was a mystery, and not one he wasn’t eager to solve.
Too young to be affected at the time, Lewis had to rely on his faulty memories to observe the device half-buried in the backyard.
“Dad, what is it?” Jack asked.
“Stand back. And get Huey out of here, too.” Lewis said, relying on his faulty childhood memories to observe the half-buried contraption.
“But Dad…”
“Do as I say, this could be dangerous.”
Could but it wasn’t, it seemed. The gas canisters underneath were intact though they appeared empty. Nonetheless, it was only common sense to call the proper authorities to dispose of the explosive and, most importantly, Mary shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it lest a simple sexual fantasy became a living reality no one could handle. He covered the hole with a tarp and went back inside the house to make the necessary arrangements.
He was still trying to get a connection to the Police Department when his wife returned, two paper bags in hand, one of which was practically torn in half by an assortment of fresh vegetables.
“Hello, stranger.” She teased. “Will you look at the size of these carrots? They’re even bigger than your…”
“Not now, please.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ll explain later. For now, just make sure Jack and Huey stay indoors, okay?”
“I don’t like that look on your face.”
“Honey, please…”
“Okay,” she laid down the bags on the kitchen counter and left him mumbling to himself until the call finally went through.
“Kennebunkport Police Department,” a charming female voice was heard.
“Good morning. This may sound hard to believe but I’ve just discovered an old bomb on my backyard…”
* * *
Five minutes later, he hung up the phone and said. “Honey, It’s time you and I have a talk.”
There was no response except the jolly sounds of his only son chasing the dog upstairs. “Kathryn? Where are you?”
“Right here,” she replied, appearing behind him as if she were a ghost hellbent on jump scaring him.
“Geez! Please don’t do that.”
“I’m sorry, dear. What do you want to talk about?” She cocked her head and smiled. “Is it about the explosive device back there?”
“You’ve seen it already?” He gasped.
“Yes. I got curious when you talked about not going outside. You should have known better by now…” she continued smiling, an unnerving rasp on her voice.
“Hmmm… you didn’t touch it, did you?”
“No, I didn’t, but even if I had, there wouldn’t be a problem, right? It’s just a dud.”
“Yes, it…”
He didn’t see the pink glow in her eyes and the improvised whip she was holding behind her back until it was too late.
